Comparison

Deep Green vs Shredder Chess Lite

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Deep Green

This app provides a classical chess experience with a clean, native interface and customizable piece designs. It supports open game formats, offers a unique chess engine with adjustable strength, and features a private, ad-free environment.

Highlights
  • Clean, native user interface
  • Customizable chess piece designs
  • Open game format (PGN/FEN)
  • Adjustable strength chess engine
  • Private and ad-free experience
  • System-level integration
Read full description

A no-nonsense classical chess app. - CLEAN UI: Deep Green offers a distraction-free experience in a clean, native user interface, with Liquid Glass on iOS 26 and later. - CUSTOM PIECE DESIGN: Beautiful chess set designed specifically for Deep Green and rendered at high resolution in both outline and 3D throughout the app. - MADE FOR IPAD: Dedicated menu bar, multiple windows, and refined trackpad, mouse, and Apple Pencil support. Squares highlight as you hover over the board. - MADE FOR IPHONE DUO: Adapts to both displays and every pose. The board centers on the fold like a folding chess board, and the game controls follow the system into the vertical bar. - TIGHT SYSTEM INTEGRATION: System-level sharing, drag and drop, AirDrop, undo/redo, contextual menus, Quick Look previews of chess files, Dark Mode, high contrast support and more. - OPEN GAME FORMAT: Games can be shared, saved, copied, pasted, imported, exported in the ubiquitous, open source PGN and FEN formats. Deep Green can open chess files straight from the Files app. - UNIQUE CHESS ENGINE: Enjoyable opponent with adjustable strength, praised for its humane gameplay, developed for Deep Green on the Apple Newton more than 25 years ago. - TWEAKABLE APPEARANCE: Engage the knights in the game by having them turn towards the center of the board, apply a humane, slightly random placement of the pieces. - IN YOUR LANGUAGE: Available in English, German, and Danish. - MODERN ARCHITECTURE: Written in Swift as a fully native app – modern, maintainable, and prepared for the future. - PRIVATE, AD-FREE: No ads, no tracking, no analytics, no nonsense. If you like Deep Green, please rate it favorably on the App Store.

About

Shredder Chess Lite

Play chess against a world champion program that mimics human play and makes mistakes at lower levels. Solve puzzles, track your progress, and get advice to improve your game. Features adjustable difficulty and a built-in coach.

Highlights
  • Adjustable playing strength
  • 100 built-in chess puzzles
  • Coach warns of mistakes
  • Elo rating calculation
  • Opening book with over 1 million moves
  • Two player mode
Features
Read full description

Shredder, the most successful chess program ever, is now also available for the iPhone. You can play against Shredder and solve chess puzzles. It offers the usual Shredder standard for your pocket. The 12 times computer chess world champion Shredder is able to mimic the play of a human chess player with any playing strength. He even deliberately makes typical human mistakes in those levels. Solve 100 built in chess puzzles. Shredder keeps track of your performance and offers advice if needed. You can adjust Shredder’s playing strength and, if you like, Shredder automatically adjusts his strength to yours. He even calculates an Elo rating for you. This is how the playing strength of chess players is typically measured. During the game a coach is watching your moves and warns you if you are about to make a mistake. See how you are getting better and better the more games you play and the more chess puzzles you solve. Shredder Chess Lite features: * Adjustable playing strength * Intuitive and very easy to operate * 100 built in chess puzzles * See your rating in a diagram * Coach shows your mistakes * Great variety: opening book with more than one million moves * Load and save games (incl. names, date, etc.) * Different chess boards and pieces * two player mode / enter moves * Learn the name of the opening you are playing * Accessibility / VoiceOver support * Improve your play whenever and wherever you like 'Shredder Chess Lite' is a fully-functional version of 'Shredder Chess' for casual chess players. If you are an active player, need more features or simply want the best you should take a look at our pro version 'Shredder Chess'. Here is what you will additionally get in our pro version: * The strongest chess engine for the iPhone * Can be set to outstanding playing strength * 1000 built in chess puzzles * Send games via email * Different playing styles from passive to aggressive * Enter and analyze any position you like * Analyse your games with Shredder, find your mistakes and improve your play * 10 USD discount coupon for Shredder 13 Mac/Win on shredderchess.com

Screenshots

Deep Green4 screens
Shredder Chess Lite4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Shredder Chess Lite at free against Deep Green's paid. Shredder Chess Lite also leads on review sentiment (79% vs 66%) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 16.4). Deep Green's advantage is ratings volume (77 vs 20). On price, rating, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.9 for Deep Green against 4.0 for Shredder Chess Lite. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 77 and 20 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 66% of Deep Green's written reviews are positive against 79% of Shredder Chess Lite's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Deep Green ships an update every 4 months, Shredder Chess Lite every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on October 27, 2026 and October 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Deep Green versus Shredder Chess Lite: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDeep GreenShredder Chess Lite
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.9 (77 ratings)4.0 (20 ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.0% of reviews78.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings77 — better20
Update frequencyEvery 4 months — betterEvery 7 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS16.410.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB24 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCocoa StuffEiko Bleicher, Skizzix.com

Customer experience

Deep Green

All ratings76 ratings
Positive71.1%
Neutral5.3%
Negative23.7%
Written reviews212 reviews
Positive66.0%
Neutral9.9%
Negative24.1%

Shredder Chess Lite

All ratings20 ratings
Positive70.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews166 reviews
Positive78.9%
Neutral5.4%
Negative15.7%

User reviews

Deep Green

From 77 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🌟 Elegant and polished design
  • 🤖 Strong chess engine
  • 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
  • 🎨 Beautiful graphics and animations
  • 🕹️ Smooth gameplay and controls

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and stability issues
  • ⚠️ Lack of features (e.g. game saving, online play)
  • 🔍 Difficulty settings too challenging for some users
  • 🔕 Missing audio/sound effects
  • 📏 Board/pieces not optimized for larger screens

Shredder Chess Lite

From 20 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Clean, simple, and intuitive user interface
  • 🎮 Excellent adaptive difficulty that adjusts to player skill level
  • 🧠 Strong chess engine with intelligent gameplay
  • 📚 Comprehensive puzzle collection for learning
  • 💰 Free version with substantial features

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Illegal chess moves by computer player
  • 📱 Not optimized for newer iPhone screen sizes
  • 🎮 Inconsistent endgame performance
  • ❌ App crashes and freezing issues
  • 🔧 Compatibility problems with iOS updates

Bugs and requests

Deep Green

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes when promoting pawns
  • Board orientation issues when rotating device
  • Unresponsive UI elements
  • Compatibility problems with newer iOS versions

Requested features

5 requests
  • Game saving and loading functionality
  • Online/multiplayer mode
  • Customizable board/piece themes
  • Difficulty settings for beginners
  • Indicators for check, checkmate, and draw

Shredder Chess Lite

Reported bugs

11 issues
  • Pawns moving sideways or diagonally without capturing
  • Pawns captured by opponent pawns when not adjacent
  • Illegal moves allowed by computer player
  • App crashes on iOS 8 and later versions
  • App won't open or load on startup
Show 6 more
  • Freezing after puzzle completion
  • Crashes when accessing advanced settings
  • Game crashes every second or third game on OS4
  • Incompatibility with iPhone 3GS and older devices
  • Checkmate detection errors
  • Puzzle mode incorrectly marking valid moves as invalid

Requested features

10 requests
  • Full screen optimization for modern iPhones
  • Time delay option before computer moves
  • Multiplayer mode for human vs human play
  • HD/universal app for iPad compatibility
  • Detailed explanations for puzzle solutions
Show 5 more
  • Higher difficulty levels in free version
  • Alternative board colors (red pieces option)
  • Dynamic hints like Fritz offers
  • Better endgame analysis
  • Improved board and piece design for clarity

In-app purchases

None

Deep Green

No in-app purchases

None

Shredder Chess Lite

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Deep Green free?
Deep Green is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Shredder Chess Lite free?
Shredder Chess Lite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Deep Green or Shredder Chess Lite?
Shredder Chess Lite is rated higher. Deep Green averages 3.9 out of 5 from 77 ratings, while Shredder Chess Lite averages 4.0 from 20 ratings.
Do Deep Green or Shredder Chess Lite have ads?
Neither Deep Green nor Shredder Chess Lite shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Deep Green or Shredder Chess Lite?
Deep Green ships an update every 4 months, and Shredder Chess Lite every 7 months. Most recently, Deep Green was updated on October 27, 2026 and Shredder Chess Lite on October 23, 2026.

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